Move over too big to fail banks, there's another monopoly in town that has jacked up the cost of living to new heights, I'm talking internet monopoly here. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) has published an article on its blog that points out that the companies dominating the internet broadband market (AT&T, Concast, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, et al) are selling internet internet access for about $500 / Year while it costs them less than $100 / subscriber, making a tidy 80% gross margin on that service.
How do they manage to keep this racket going? Why the American way, they hire hundreds of lobbyists and partner with ALEC to buy protection against competition. They do this with the Municipal Telecommunications Private Industry Safeguards Act the model legislation that outlaws communities efforts to build their own broadband networks, because that would be infringing on "Free Enterprise". Such measures have now passed in 19 states, including our neighbors in Washington State. This is the worst of crony capitalism at work.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated for relevance and civility. Spam is discarded.